Many communication devices that are currently used today allow the user to send and receive messages. Examples of messages include electronic mail (e-mail), Short Message Service (SMS) messages, Instant Messages (IM) messages, Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) messages, a calendar event and the like. Examples of communication devices that can send and receive at least some of these messages include personal computers, personal digital assistants, cellular phones with messaging capabilities and the like. These communication devices are typically provided with a message application that can be used to manage these messages, including allowing the user to store and display the received messages. The message application uses a single display region, referred to as an “inbox window” that is used to display the received messages that the user has not yet deleted or stored in another folder. The messages in the inbox window are shown in an ordered list based on a certain attribute of the message.
If the number of messages in the inbox is larger than the number of messages that the corresponding display region can accommodate, then only a certain number of messages are shown from the beginning of this ordered list. To view the remaining messages, the message application typically provides the display region with a scroll bar or some other means to allow the user to view the remaining messages. Furthermore, as new messages are received, the messages at the bottom of the display region move out of the display region since the messages are usually listed based on the date that the messages are received with the most recently received messages being listed first.
Typically, the user will receive a message that the user needs to act on at some future time. For instance, the user may receive a message regarding an upcoming teleconference. Alternatively, the user may receive a message regarding an errand that must be performed. Since the user wishes to remember these items, the user typically keeps these messages in the inbox instead of storing or deleting the messages so that it is in plain view whenever the user looks at the inbox. However, since the user typically receives many other messages that are in the inbox, these messages of interest that the user wishes to remember may be “pushed out” of the display region and will no longer be in plain sight. The user may then forget about these messages of interest, or have to waste time scrolling through the various messages in the inbox in order to find these messages of interest.